Feedback, Complaints or Problems

Hi Guys and Gals, I sold FEAR3 retail addition on ebay to someone,now Steam would not allow this person to register the game,so we said send me the game back and we will refund your payment and postage.

My concern is that its has been 7 days with no reply from Steam which is very unusual in my past experience with Steam,so i have updated my original Question twice,and still no reply only the automated email system,i have the ticket numbers for all 3 contacts.

I was wanting to know has anyone had the same experience selling a retail game that has been registered on-line at Steam,we all know that we have to register a game via Steam that goes through the Steam system.

What exactly did you tell STEAM? I understand that you sold the game via eBay to someone else and that they are not allowed to register the game with STEAM. I also gather that you have no problems refunding their money and postage, but the refund bit is between you and the third party you sold the game to, not STEAM. So what was in your communication with STEAM after they said that the game could not be re-registered by another person?

What exactly did you tell STEAM? I understand that you sold the game via eBay to someone else and that they are not allowed to register the game with STEAM. I also gather that you have no problems refunding their money and postage, but the refund bit is between you and the third party you sold the game to, not STEAM. So what was in your communication with STEAM after they said that the game could not be re-registered by another person?

OK the man who i sold the game to FEAR3 told me he could not register this game....Now This is pure FACT i also sold Battlefield 3 to the same person,so i telephoned E.A.tel#0870 243 2435 about this Battlefield 3 situation,i asked them to email me the reason why i cannot sell the game.

"Hi Michael,

Thank you for contactign EA Customer support.

I'm refering to EA's Terms of Service here and here is the raeson

You may not copy or download any Content and/or Entitlements from an EA Service unless you are expressly authorized to do so. In addition, unless expressly authorized by EA, you may not distribute, publicly perform or display, lease, sell, transmit, transfer, publish, edit, copy, create derivative works from, rent, sub-license, distribute, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise make unauthorized use of Content or Entitlements. Any commercial use is prohibited. You agree not to remove, obscure, or alter copyright, patent, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices affixed to Content. Your rights are subject to your compliance with these Terms of Service as well as any other agreements applicable to the EA Services you are using.

This is the reason why you can't sell the game."

This is the reply in writing via email to me at mid-day,Win or lose i am going to contact The Office of Fair Trading in the UK.

What exactly did you tell STEAM? I understand that you sold the game via eBay to someone else and that they are not allowed to register the game with STEAM. I also gather that you have no problems refunding their money and postage, but the refund bit is between you and the third party you sold the game to, not STEAM. So what was in your communication with STEAM after they said that the game could not be re-registered by another person?

These are my Questions to Steam Wrythe1985:

"1 Message by you on Wed, 22nd Aug 2012 9:16 am What is the situation when i have sold my FEAR 3 game on Ebay,and obviously you must use the CD-Key to register the game on Steam,You can see via my account that i have never played on-line and i never will, i always play Single player or Campaign,could you please explain to me what the third party has to do when this situation arises,as it has done in my case today. My Kindest Regards.

P.S. Thank you to all the Steam staff who do a difficult job at times with awkward customers for me you have always been there,once again Thank you to all Steam Staff.

2 Message by you on Fri, 24th Aug 2012 6:55 am Hi at Steam i know you are busy but i am awaiting a reply to my fist contact on Wednesday 22nd August,also just to add that i only purchase Hard copys of my games on CD from the high street retailer GAME,so i would be very grateful if you could clarify my situation on this game FEAR 3 which has been sold on Ebay,now the purchaser wants to return the game to me because he cannot use it,also incurring Extra costs to myself and postage for the Return of the game to me through no fault of mine. My Kindest Regards.

3 Message by you on Tue, 28th Aug 2012 12:24 am Hi at Steam,its been almost 6 Days from when i first emailed you with a very imprtant Question,then i added some more information last Friday as you can see from my Questions,would you please tell me why Steam is not answering my Question's.

Well,to bring all members up to speed who purchase the retail cd's for pc games,here is the lowdown, i have had replies back from Steam and E.A.-Origin.

" Steam says that you are not allowed to re-sell your retail CD's for the PC,...E.A.-Origin says also you cannot re-sell your retail CD's for the PC,both companys are adament that you cannot re-sell these games,then E.A.-Origin did also say via telephone that you can purchase a NEW CD-Key at the cost of the retail game,Steam have not said that at all,only that in your terms and conditions you agree not to sell on etc.

The bottom line for me is that your basic freedom to sell your paid for CD on any kind of market is not allowed,now with a console that has no internet connection you can buy and sell these games anywhere (DOUBLE STANDARDS) as far as i am concerned,i must point out PIRACY MUST BE STOPPED i fully agree with that,my Trading standards have said they beleive this is an unfair terms of condition regarding the PC games (Re-selling)they have sugested going to the small claims court obviously in the UK.

You cannot resell used PC games. Product Keys are designed to be used once and only once and are tied to a person (on Steam, it is designed to be activated only once and from that point on it will always be on your account). They cannot be transferred to another user. It is stated in the game's Terms of Service and is understood that you agree to those terms when you installed the game.

You can resell console games though since they are not bound by product keys (these use hardware DRM with the discs in which special information is injected in each CD that is required for the console to read before it will play the game and this can be read on any console).